New webpage set up for decision on intellectual
property and public health

The WTO website now includes a dedicated page for
member governments to make known their use (or intention to use)
provisions allowing cheaper pharmaceutical products to be traded more
easily across borders under compulsory licensing.

The dedicated page is part of the task of putting into operation
the 30 August 2003 decision, which
makes it easier for countries in need to import cheaper generics made under
compulsory licensing if they are unable to manufacture the medicines
themselves.

The decision says that certain notifications “will be made available
publicly by the WTO Secretariat through a page on the WTO website dedicated
to this Decision.”
This page is now
available.

On the import side, if a government intends to import a pharmaceutical
product under the decision, it has to notify the names and expected
quantities of the product that it needs.

A government that has issued a compulsory licence for making and exporting a
product under the decision has to notify certain information to the TRIPS
Council, including the fact that it has issued a compulsory licence and the
conditions attached to it. The government also has to state the website
address on which the licensee will post some additional information, such as
the quantities being supplied to each destination and the product’s
distinguishing features. (The licensee can also use the WTO’s dedicated
webpage for this purpose.)